The Director General, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Bashir Jamoh has charged the executives of the five approved Primary Lending Institutions (PLIs) for the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF) disbursement to avail NIMASA of their lending experiences in order to make it a success.
Jamoh gave this charge when NIMASA management met with the banks’ CEOs on Tuesday at the agency’s boardroom in Lagos to discuss the best way to go about the CVFF disbursement.
The five PLIs are Union Bank, Zenith Bank, Jaiz Bank, Polaris Bank and UBA.
Jamoh stated that the essence of the meeting was to interface with them, let them know the nitty gritty of Cabotage Act and come up with modalities for the disbursement.
He stressed that their engagement was to tap from their financial and lending experiences, to avoid the pitfalls of the CVFF’s predecessor, Ship Acquisition and Ship Building Fund (SASBF).
According to him, the SASBF collapsed because it was managed by the then National Maritime Authority (NMA) and the Ministry of Transportation without requisite knowledge in loan disbursement and recovery.
The NIMASA boss disclosed that till now over eight shipowners have not paid back the SASBF loan.
Jamoh hinted that the decisions reached between the banks and NIMASA on the disbursement methods shall be discussed at a large meeting between NIMASA and shipowners, and other stakeholders.
He added that the final outcome of the large meeting shall form the fulcrum of the final decisions of the federal government on the disbursement.
He explained that the CVFF funding is a counterpart one as NIMASA will bear 50%, the banks 35% and the shipowners will bear the rest.
The PLIs commende the initiative, NIMASA and the federal government and expressed their readiness to key in into the disbursement but requested for more time, not later than one week, to do their own homework and report back to the NIMASA management.